Waiting for WPTE to come back into the teens and may slap a pairs trade long WPTE and short partypoker/partygaming in the UK which has had a fantastic run since the IPO.
Check the members of the original LineMovers... I'm willing to bet they're combing through the StockWatch records right now to see who dumped.
The charts says they may want to look for who dumped on the downside vol 15 min Friday at the open when the stock was no where near $35 which was the offer price on the wires.
I agree, it smells really bad, the "bare" bid, the law firm dropping out, Brunson playing dumb. Lipscomb should release the text of the offersheet. Why hasn't he?
Yeah, in the typical takeover scenario, the bid holds -- this one died from the open. I'm sure the SEC already knows who sold.
Bidder for WPT confirms the $700 mln offer expired Wed Jul 13, 2005 10:22 AM ET NEW YORK, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S. poker champion Doyle Brunson confirmed in a brief statement on Wednesday that the $700 million offer to buy gaming entertainment company WPT Enterprises Inc. (WPTE.O: Quote, Profile, Research) has officially expired. Last week, WPT said a group of investors led by Brunson submitted the offer, asking for a response by Tuesday, with a one-week extension provision. News of the offer, which was nearly double the company's market value, sent WPT's stock price soaring 50 percent to $29 on Friday. WPT said it tried to obtain additional information about the offer but was unsuccessful. The company indicated on Monday that it would not reply by Tuesday and would not seek an extension. "...The proposal was not accepted by the company nor was an extension of time requested. Accordingly, the proposal expired by its own terms," Brunson said in an e-mailed statement on Wednesday. Shares of WPT fell 47 cents, or 2.1 percent, to $21.51 in early trade on Nasdaq. The company owns the World Poker Tour, the popular television series broadcast on the Travel Channel cable network, as well as an online gambling Web site.
This is the trade to make IMO, don't know about waiting for the teens but if you are able to short the partygaming stock (can anyone yet?) against wpte i wouldn't think you could find a better risk reward pairs trade out there. if the wpte begins to push their on gaming website they can make up ground fast and the valuations should converge. Would not be suprised if Doyle's group does eventually back the orgional offer, there's no reason for him or his group to bluff. Obviously Doyle is the figurehead of the whole thing but somebody has to realize that it only makes sense that the wpte brand their own online poker casino and ramp it up and if they get only 1/10th of the mkt share that partypoker currently has, its pretty easy to make the case that is undervalued. As to the has poker peaked question.....I would seriously doubt it. Certainly all the signs are there...anyone go into a barnes and noble lately....the poker book section has grown exponentially but the craze seems to have legs. Even the repeats of the repeats, of the repeats still get good ratings. There is some site somewhere that tracks the online users. I think someone here posted it a while back or I read it in a blog somewhere, can't remember. It was still tracking higher last I looked.
So now not only is Brunson, a top Poker player, (assuming he profitted on this deal that sent the stock price soaring, which I have no doubt that he did) He is a great stock trader also. Go Doyle!!